Wikitopia: Balancing intellectual property rights within open source research databases

Wiki “communities” based on the open access ideology allow any visitor to easily add, remove or edit content. However, there are a slew of ethics and policy challenges inherent in their use. Open source software developers are faced with the dilemma of openly sharing their intellectual property and prevent others from claiming proprietary rights from the code they freely shared to the public? Intellectual Property rights licensing, ironically, is the route by which open software developers have chosen to regulate their free code in cyberspace. Open source code is generally free on the surface; but in reality, it comes with obligations which are enforceable by law. Aside from the potential liability for intellectual property infringement, the use of open software raises competition law and tort liability issues. The European Union has developed the European Public License which is written in conformity with the copyright, product liability and consumer protection laws of the 27 member states. The EU Commission has also proposed a new Directive which will extend the principles of consumer protection rules to cover licensing agreements of products like software. This paper will address the various legal issues that may arise in open source community sharing.     

Technological diversity,scientific excellence and the location of inventive activities abroad: the case of nanotechnology

Our contribution to the expanding literature on the globalization of research and innovation is to investigate the extent to which sector-specific developments in an emerging technology (such as increasing interdisciplinarity and complexity) affect inventive activities developed abroad. We look at how technological diversity and scientific excellence of host countries in the field of nanotechnology affect the development of inventive activities by US multinational companies (MNCs). We identify the most active US-based MNCs in nanotechnology-related patenting and examine location decisions of these companies and their international subsidiaries. Econometric results confirm our hypothesis that the technological breadth of host countries positively influences the expected number of inventions developed abroad by US MNCs. Science capabilities of countries also have a positive impact on the decision to invent abroad, while the influence of market specific factors is less clear. We interpret these results as suggesting that host country science capabilities are important to attract innovative activities by MNCs, but as the interdisciplinary and convergent nature of nanotechnology evolves, access to a broadly diversified knowledge base becomes important in increasing the relative attractiveness of host locations.

Commercializing biomedical science in a rapidly changing “triple-helix” nexus: The experience of the National University of Singapore

Since the late 1990s, the Singapore government had embarked on a significant push to develop the city-state into a major life-science R&D and industrial cluster in Asia. Although a major focus of this new thrust involves attracting leading life science companies overseas to establish operations in Singapore and developing new public life science research institutions to attract overseas life science research talents (Finegold, Wong, and Cheah (2004)), the local universities are expected to play an important role as well. In particular, the National University of Singapore (NUS), the leading university in Singapore, has also started to pursue major strategic change to become more “entrepreneurial”, and identified life science as a major focus for technology commercialization as well. Adapting the “Triple-Helix” framework of Etzkowitz, Webster, Gebhardt, & Terra (2000), this paper examines the significant changes in the university-government-industry “Triple-Helix” nexus for life science in Singapore, and their consequent impact on life science commercialization at NUS. Implications for universities in other late-comer countries seeking to catch up in the global biotech race are discussed.      

毒物代谢动力学研究在法庭科学中的应用

随着法庭科学的发展以及近年来涉及毒品、毒物等中毒案件的增加,许多研究者对毒物代谢动力学进行研究,并取得了一定的成果.本文综述毒物代谢动力学研究及其在法庭科学中的应用状况,概要介绍毒物代谢动力学的研究现状、研究方法及研究成果,以期为相关研究及实践提供参考和借鉴.     

Beyond CSI: Calibrating public beliefs about the reliability of forensic science through openness and transparency

What drives public beliefs about the credibility of a scientific field? This question is increasingly important, with recent discussion of a “reproducibility crisis” affecting many fields. Such discussions are vital in forensic science, a discipline that has experienced severe scrutiny from both the media and large oversight bodies. In this paper, we make three contributions to this discussion. First, we bring together and compare several studies in which laypeople were asked about the reliability of forensic science practices. This review suggests that forensic practices do not enjoy uniformly high reliability ratings from the public and these ratings are not calibrated with the scientific consensus. We then review three empirically-tested ways that other fields are dealing with their own crises, all centred around transparency and openness. Finally, we make recommendations for how forensic science can leverage transparency and openness to improve and maintain its long-term credibility. As part of these recommendations, we find that empirical research supports the Houston Forensic Science Center’s recent claims that it has improved its credibility through openness and transparency.     

论我国公安学基础理论的学科地位和研究意义

2011年3月8日,由中国人民公安大学主导论证的公安学和公安技术同时被国务院学术委员会、教育部批准增设为一级学科,这在我国公安教育史上是一件可喜可贺的大事、盛事,具有开创性的里程碑意义。为了加强公安学一级学科的建设,我们必须高度重视公安学基础理论研究。俗话说:"基础不牢,地动山摇",对公安学整个学科建设来说,公安学基础理论是所有公安学科的基础和基石,公安学基础理论研究得如何直接决定着公安学其他学科建设的成败。因此,研究公安学基础理论具有非常深远的理论价值和实践意义。     

民事诉讼中公文书证之证据效力研究

在民事证据立法中,不仅要明确赋予公文书证在证据法上的地位,更要对公文书证的证据效力进行明确,赋予其完全的证据能力和证据力,并根据公文书证的分类构建差异化的证据力规则。在推定公文书证均具有形式证据力的基础上,原则上推定其具有实质证据力,但是针对报道性公文书证,允许其通过提供相反证据予以推翻,处分性书证则不允许。最终通过对当事人对公文书证异议程序和相应救济手段的构建来规范和引领公文书证在司法实践中的科学合理适用。     

Sowing seeds of change for the digital world – A response to ‘Digital opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth’

Professor Ian Hargreaves released his independent report entitled Digital Opportunity – A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth on 18 May 2011. Hargreaves advocates strategic change and policy initiatives for the intellectual property framework in both national and international contexts. Ten recommendations are proposed, including reform of copyright licencing procedures, implementation of a digital copyright exchange, and legislative exceptions to copyright infringement, along with restructuring of systems for the grant and enforcement of patents. In this article, the authors discuss Hargreaves’ recommendations and consider how intellectual property law and policy may be used to facilitate innovation and economic growth in the modern digital world.     

Intellectual property (IP) management: organizational processes and structures, and the role of IP donations

This paper examines intellectual property (IP) management in U.S. companies and addresses three questions: What are typical sources of IP? How do companies manage IP? What role do donations of IP play in IP management? We used in-depth interviews and an on-line survey to gather data. We found that firms develop their IP position from a wide variety of sources such as joint ventures, acquisitions, and consulting contracts, but internal development is still the primary source of IP. Organizationally, three structural archetypes of IP management were identified: a centralized structure, a purely decentralized IP structure and a compromise structure involving a divisional assignment where a multi-business unit or division committee oversees IP. IP donations clearly do not appear to be a major phenomenon at the present time. Our survey results suggest that tax benefits are an important driver and that recent tax law changes have diminished the incentives to donate IP. The uncertainty of tax benefits and the costs associated with IP valuation appear to be the main disincentives.     

Prevention science,drug abuse prevention,and Life Skills Training: Comments on the state of the science

There has been tremendous growth in the field of prevention science over the past two decades. The defining features of contemporary prevention science are high quality empirical research using rigorous and well-established scientific methods, careful hyphothesis testing, and the systematic accumulation of knowledge. One area where substantial progress has been made is in our understanding of the etiology and prevention of tobacoo, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse. In this paper, we review the growth in prevention as a scientific enterprise, discuss advances in drug abuse prevention research, and review the effectiveness of one approach to the problem of adolescent drug abuse, the Life Skills Traning (LST) program, and the methodological strengths of the LST evaluation research. In addition, we provide a response to criticism regarding two types of data analysis in evaluation research, and show that these analyses can help address a number of important research questions with implications for theory and practice. First, the analysis of high fidelity subsamples can address research questions about the importance of program implementation fidelity; and second, composite measures of concurrent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use (i.e., polydrug use) are useful in testing research questions about program effects on more serious levels of drug involvement. With an increasing number of ramdomized controlled trials underway, the field of prevention science is contributing to a new generation of evidence-based approaches and policies that, if widely utilized, offer the potential of reducing the mortality and morbidity associated with a number of major health and social problems.     

The work the document does: research, policy, and equity in health

At the center of the politics of health equity, in many countries and circumstances, stands a signal report of research. This article is concerned with what might be described as the architecture of such documents, including how they are produced and organized and the relationships they demonstrate with others that parallel, precede, and succeed them. The article examines how scientific and political authority is established and comments on the evidence of cross-national learning that these documents reveal. It discusses differences in how the problem of health equity is constructed in different countries and how research findings are converted into policy recommendations. It begins to trace a process of implementation by noting how these documents are referred to and written about. The argument is that the politics of health equity are expressed or realized in the documents and reports, which are its principal vehicle. This is not to claim that there is no world beyond the text or that the world somehow is a text, but that to fully understand that world we must understand the text and the work it does.     

Finding audiences, changing beliefs: the structure of research use in Canadian health policy

The impact of research information depends on its ability to change beliefs or policy assumptions within the relevant audiences. As a hybrid of American and British systems, Canada's chosen decision-making structure for policy-making and its legislative framework for health insurance make these audiences unclear and not readily accessible. This factor and historical characteristics of the research community which made them only partially responsive to the values of decisionmakers provide an explanation for the limited past use of research information in Canadian health policy. More recently, improved responsiveness by researchers and an emerging definition of the audiences by legislative policymakers are bringing about a gradual increase in the potential impact of research at the levels of administrative and clinical policy. Because of continuing decision-making constraints on legislative policy, however, impact at this level is predicted to remain diffuse, with only cautious acceptance of the changes in beliefs implied by research.     

公共政策制定的理论研究中的“村民”与“农民”概念辨析

构建和谐社会,落实科学发展观,离不开对“三农”问题的研究。长期以来,在关于“三农”问题与村民自治的公共政策制定和理论研究中,由于对“农民”与“村民”概念的片面理解和不规范使用,产生了严重的负面影响,对其规范使用已是势在必行。农民与村民本是两个外延不同,内涵既有同质性,但又有异质性的概念,二者不可相互替代。对其规范使用,有利于在公共政策制定和“三农”问题的理论研究上发挥正确导向和规范作用。     

S&;T Parks and business incubators in middle-sized countries: the case of greece

This paper links the policy context regarding S&T parks to the objectives and characteristics of the established parks and incubators in a relatively small, converging European country. S&T parks and incubators in Greece during the past decade and a half have gradually shifted in terms of ownership and management from university/research institute to the private sector and in terms of financing from public to private funds, also involving the provision of seed capital and access to venture capital. This gradual shift toward more private engagement has created a variety of models out of which, it is hoped, successful innovative companies will emerge in larger numbers than in the past.

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Considering forensic science: individual differences,opposing expert testimony and juror decision making

Two experimental studies examined the effect of opposing expert testimony on perceptions of the reliability of unvalidated forensic evidence (anthropometric facial comparison). In the first study argument skill and epistemological sophistication were included as measures of individual differences, whereas study two included scores on the Forensic Evidence Evaluation Bias Scale. In both studies participants were assigned to groups who heard: (1) no expert testimony, (2) prosecution expert testimony, or (3) prosecution and opposing expert testimony. Opposing expert testimony affected verdict choice, but this effect was mediated by perceptions of reliability of the initial forensic expert's method. There was no evidence for an effect on verdict or reliability ratings by argument skill or epistemology. In the second experiment, the same mediation effect was found, however scores on one subscale from the FEEBS and age also affected both verdict and methodological reliability. It was concluded that opposing expert testimony may inform jurors, but perceptions of the reliability of forensic evidence affect verdict, and age and bias towards forensic science influence perceptions of forensic evidence. Future research should investigate individual differences that may affect perception or bias towards forensic sciences under varying conditions of scientific reliability.     

The distinction between discriminability and reliability in forensic science

Forensic science plays an increasingly important role in the criminal justice system; yet, many forensic procedures have not been subject to the empirical scrutiny that is expected in other scientific disciplines. Over the past two decades, the scientific community has done well to bridge the gap, but have likely only scratched the tip of the iceberg. We offer the discriminability-reliability distinction as a critical framework to guide future research on diagnostic-testing procedures in the forensic science domain. We argue that the primary concern of the scientist ought to be maximizing discriminability and that the primary concern of the criminal justice system ought to be assessing the reliability of evidence. We argue that Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis is uniquely equipped for determining which of two procedures or conditions has better discriminability and we also demonstrate how estimates of reliability can be extracted from this Signal Detection framework.     

Y－染色体SNPs及其在法医学中的应用价值

随着人类基因组计划的迅猛发展,已有越来越多的Y染色体SNP位点被发现,在个人识别、家系谱的建立、疾病的预测与诊断方面,Y染色体单核苷酸多态性提供了非常有价值的遗传标记。同样在法医学中也有广阔的应用前景。本文综合介绍了SNP和Y-SNP的一般特性及在法医学中的应用价值。